Roger Federer began a record 161st week at the top of the ATP tennis rankings on Monday with a hard-fought 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-3 victory over Denmark's Kristian Pless in the first round of the $1.5million Dubai Tennis Championship.

Both players held their serve in the opening set, but Federer took the tiebreak 7-2.

Pless refused to be overawed however, and broke the Swiss in the fourth game of the second set, which he went on to take 6-3.

But Federer, who returned to tennis on Monday a month after winning the Australian Open, took the final set 6-3.

Former World No.1 Gustavo Kuerten earned his first hard-court victory for 18 months when he booked a place in the round-robin section of the Las Vegas Open in Las Vegas on Monday.

The 30-year-old Brazilian, who played just one match last year following a hip surgery, made light of gusting winds to beat South African Wesley Moodie 6-4, 7-5, and seal his second win in three tour matches this year.

Kuerten, three-time French Open champion, dropped out of the world's top 1,000 before bouncing back to 804th after winning a match at the Brazil Open this month.

He will join German Benjamin Becker and Czech Jan Hernych in one of the eight round-robin groups, with the group winners then progressing to the quarterfinals.

"It's a good feeling," Kuerten told reporters. "To be around again, back in tournaments.

"It's more than one-and-a-half years since I played four matches in one week. That's what I am looking forward to."